The Blue Shamrock Golf Club is giving the Palmerton High School cross country team the runaround.

Tuesday afternoon, the Blue Bomber harriers hosted five other schools in a hexagonal meet at the club's 18-hole golf course. Ownership at the site agreed to suspend golf play during the event.Jeff Minnich, who has now coached teams on three "home" cross country trails since he became the head of the program in 2001, welcomes the change to the new course."From 1998 to 2014, our teams ran on a shale and dirt course off of Fireline Road," he said. "It was a safety issue and a liability issue because of the buses and cars coming into the parking area."Then for the past two years, we ran at the high school, about three loops around the baseball field. Although that course was spectator-friendly because the runners were mostly visible, our team thought it was repetitive, boring, and unchallenging."That's not the case at Blue Shamrock, however."This new course is certainly a challenging venture," said Minnich. "There are long, rolling hills in the beginning of the trail, and for the final two-and-a-half miles, when fatigue begins to set into the runners, the trail becomes slightly elevated."Minnich explained that most of the run is on grass, with a small section of macadam where the golf carts travel. He has seen two similar trails before, one at the Bethlehem Municipal golf course, where the District 11 championships are held, and at Penn State, where he ran in a state championship meet.He kidded that it was a good idea that there would be no golf play during a race. Imagine if someone was trying to make a three-foot putt, but his swing was disturbed by an approaching herd of cross country runners?The idea for Palmerton to run at the country club belongs to assistant coach Mike Martinez, who had made the suggestion to the proprietors.Besides offering its location for the races, the Blue Shamrock is thinking that families and spectators will remain after the meets to have dinner in the club restaurant."Running at the course is an experiment for now, though we are hoping it becomes our home base," said Minnich.On Monday, his Palmerton harriers walked the course to become familiar with its layout and challenges. Minnich said that the team will not practice daily at the club because that would interfere with tee times and also could wear down the grassy areas of the running trail."We just returned from Hershey, where the course was very difficult," he said. "Running mostly on grass at this golf course should be forgiving to our runners, but I also think that overall times may be slower because of the two-mile incline to the finish line."Once his runners get accustomed to the nuances of the new trail, Minnich hopes that faster times will eventually become "par for the course."************GOLFING GREATNESS... On Monday afternoon, Marian's Albert McFadden captured the Schuylkill League Boys Individual Golf Championship at the Schuylkill Country Club by firing a round of 76, three strokes better than runner-up Alex Everly of Pottsville. It is the second Schuylkill League crown for McFadden, who also won the tournament his freshman season. It is the seventh time out of 14 matches this season that the Marian senior has shot a round in the 70s. With the win, McFadden has automatically qualified for the District 11 golf championships to be held on Oct. 10 at Locust Valley Golf Course.************SINGLED OUT... As the girls tennis regular season winds to a close, two Times News area singles players reached the double-digit victory mark. With a 6-4, 6-3 victory against Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg's Sam Fiore at No. 1 singles on Monday, Jim Thorpe's Brittney Marzen picked up her 11th victory of the season. Meanwhile, playing at No. 2 singles, Pleasant Valley's Hayley White recorded her 10th win against Pocono Mountain East's Shadasra Early last Thursday (6-0, 6-1).************THREE'S COMPANY... There have been 58 soccer and field hockey games played in the past week involving Times News area teams, but there were only three hat tricks recorded among the local teams. All three of the scoring ourbursts came in boy soccer games. Northwestern's Ken Gawelko scored four goals on Monday evening in the Tigers' 11-1 thrashing of Pen Argyl, Tamaqua's Riley McHugh netted three goals in Monday's 6-2 victory over North Schuylkill, and Weatherly's Chris Smith also scored three goals in Saturday's 7-2 victory over Salem Christian Academy.************PLAYOFF BOUND... Last week, the Northwesten boys and girls soccer teams became the first two Times News area teams to clinch a berth in the District 11 playoffs. This week, the Pleasant Valley girls soccer team joined the Tigers in the postseason by virtue of a 0-0 tie with Salisbury on Saturday, which guarantees the Lady Bears (8-0-2) a spot in the Class 4A Tournament. Pleasant Valley, which hadn't lost this season entering yesterday's play, had both of its ties come without the Bears even yielding a single goal. In addition to Saturday's scoreless tie with Salisbury, Pleasant Valley opened the season with a 0-0 tie with Pocono Mountain East on Sept. 2.************GETTING DEFENSIVE... The Northwestern boys soccer team (12-0-1) and the Pleasant Valley boys soccer team (7-2) have yet to allow more than one goal in any of their games this season entering yesterday's action. In 12 games, the Tigers are outscoring their opponents 58-3, while the Bears are outscoring their opponents 19-4 through nine games. Meanwhile, the Pleasant Valley girls soccer team (8-0-2) allowed two goals against Liberty on September 19, but are outscoring their opponents 34-4 through 10 games.************STILL UNDEFEATED... The Marian and Panther Valley volleyball teams both picked up wins this past week and were the only two Times News area fall sports teams with perfect records. Both the Fillies and Lady Panthers were 8-0 on the season heading into the week. Marian has dropped just two sets this season (to Nativity), while Panther Valley has dropped four sets (two each to Minersville and Pottsville). Last Thursday, the Northwestern boys soccer team saw its streak of 11 straight victories to open the season spoiled by a 1-1 tie with Salisbury. The Tigers are 12-0-1 on the season, and they join the Pleasant Valley girls socer team (8-0-2) as the only other area teams without a loss on the season.************GOING STREAKING... Aside from the Marian and Panther Valley volleyball teams winning their first eight matches to start the season, the longest active winning streaks (without a tie) belongs to the Marian golf team. After suffering a 10-stroke loss to Blue Mountain on Aug. 29, the Marian golf team (12-1) has strung together seven straight victories to close out the regular season.************Every Wednesday during the fall sports season, the Times News sports department will publish its weekly fall sports notebook reflecting back on the week that was, and highlighting both individual and team accomplishments, as well as interesting information that may have occurred in games, matches or meets. The notebook will cover cross country, field hockey, golf, soccer, tennis and volleyball, and will consist of storylines from the previous seven days. Today's notebook will reflect back on all the happenings from last Tuesday up through this past Monday. Times News sports writer Jason Boris will once again be handling the compilation of notes and is encouraging all local coaches and schools to email him with noteworthy information that can be used in this column. Emails can be sent to

jboris@tnonline.com. Please note that only results and information received by the Times News during the week will be used in this column.